Too many connections open and dependency on actual ethernet interface

We are using openjms-0.7.6.1 running on one Redhat Enterprise linux box.
There are four processes communicating with a local openjms server.  The 
config file is:

<Configuration>
   <!-- Optional. This represents the default configuration  -->
   <ServerConfiguration host="localhost" embeddedJNDI="true" />

   <!-- Required when using an RMI connector -->
   <Connectors>
     <Connector scheme="rmi">
       <ConnectionFactories>
         <QueueConnectionFactory name="JmsQueueConnectionFactory" />
         <TopicConnectionFactory name="JmsTopicConnectionFactory" />
       </ConnectionFactories>
     </Connector>
   </Connectors>

   <!-- Required  -->
   <DatabaseConfiguration>
     <JdbmDatabaseConfiguration name="openjms.db" />
   </DatabaseConfiguration>

   <!-- Required -->
   <AdminConfiguration script="${openjms.home}\bin\startup.bat" />

   <!-- Optional. If not specified, no destinations will be created -->
   <AdministeredDestinations>
     <AdministeredTopic name="xxTopic"/>
         <AdministeredQueue name="xx1" />
         <AdministeredQueue name="xx2" />
         <AdministeredQueue name="xx3"/>
   </AdministeredDestinations>

   <!-- Optional. If not specified, no users will be created -->
   <Users>
     <User xxxxx />
   </Users>
</Configuration>

I have two problems:

1. I get a hundred or so TCP connections open, many short lived.
Why?  I would expect perhaps 4 long lived TCP connections would be 
sufficient (one from each of the processes to the openjms server).  I think 
that the many connections are causing performance problems.

2. The TCP connections use the external IP address of the host.  If the 
ethernet interface is unplugged or ifconfig'ed down, then openjms dies.  How 
do I force use of the loopback interface, 127.0.0.1?

-- 
thanks,
  David Waitzman
  BBN Technologies


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